Needham & Company LLC Raises Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) Price Target to $450.00

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) had its price target raised by analysts at Needham & Company LLC from $385.00 to $450.00 in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 14.54% from the stock’s previous close.

PANW has been the topic of several other research reports. UBS Group increased their target price on Palo Alto Networks from $345.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Rosenblatt Securities raised Palo Alto Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $390.00 to $430.00 in a report on Thursday. DA Davidson raised their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $380.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $376.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on shares of Palo Alto Networks from $364.00 to $399.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, thirty have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $396.03.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Up 1.2 %

PANW opened at $392.89 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $127.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.19, a PEG ratio of 5.63 and a beta of 1.12. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $362.55 and its 200 day moving average price is $338.41. Palo Alto Networks has a 12-month low of $258.17 and a 12-month high of $408.53.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 20th. The network technology company reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $2.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.12 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 32.11% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.63 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Palo Alto Networks will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Nir Zuk sold 36,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.50, for a total transaction of $11,970,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,115,567 shares in the company, valued at approximately $370,926,027.50. This trade represents a 3.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Lee Klarich sold 60,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $344.98, for a total value of $20,698,800.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,009 shares in the company, valued at $54,854,924.82. This trade represents a 27.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 254,252 shares of company stock valued at $89,041,637. Company insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Tradewinds LLC. grew its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 1.2% during the third quarter. Tradewinds LLC. now owns 2,315 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $791,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 920 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $312,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. FLC Capital Advisors lifted its position in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 0.7% during the third quarter. FLC Capital Advisors now owns 4,035 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,379,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC grew its stake in Palo Alto Networks by 3.0% in the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,044 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $357,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton increased its holdings in Palo Alto Networks by 9.4% in the third quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 348 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $119,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. 79.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Palo Alto Networks Company Profile

Palo Alto Networks, Inc provides cybersecurity solutions worldwide. The company offers firewall appliances and software; and Panorama, a security management solution for the global control of network security platform as a virtual or a physical appliance. It also provides subscription services covering the areas of threat prevention, malware and persistent threat, URL filtering, laptop and mobile device protection, DNS security, Internet of Things security, SaaS security API, and SaaS security inline, as well as threat intelligence, and data loss prevention.